THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala Finance Minister K N Balagopal has said there is "false propaganda" against the state that Kerala had fallen into a huge debt trap. He said that three years ago, Kerala's total public debt was 39 per cent of GSDP, which has now come down to 33 per cent.
During the same period, the total debt of the Union government increased from 52 per cent to 56 per cent of GDP, he said.
Inaugurating a seminar on the latest Union Budget and Economic Survey, jointly organised by the Gulati Institute of Finance and Taxation (GIFT), Thiruvananthapuram chapter of Kerala Economic Association and Departments of Economics, Political Science and Commerce of Kerala University on Friday, he said that the total expenditure under interest at the central level is 24 per cent while in the case of Kerala, it is 15 per cent.
He added that both the union budget and the Economic Survey falsely project a rosy picture of the economy, but the reality is not so.
He said that the unemployment, inflation, and price rises are on the increasing trend and the poor and lower middle class suffer badly. The robust growth claimed by the Survey and budget is not reflected in the income, and purchasing power of the people.The unemployment rate in June 2024 will be 9.2 percent according to the CMIE report. Around 10 lakh jobs are vacant at the union government level and in various PSUs. He claimed that Kerala had performed well in providing more employment through PSC. Out of the total 55,000 appointments by all PSCs in India, 35,000 were through Kerala PSC.
The budget lacks projects to solve the unemployment problem in the long run, said leading economist Professor M A Oommen. Rising unemployment is a structural issue of the Indian economy, which should be addressed very seriously. Economic Survey 2023–24 gives a false image of the country, which paints a rosy picture of the economy at large. The actual situation of the economy is not that, and rising unemployment and inflation are very serious issues currently, he added.
Dr Pranab Sen, country director, IGC said that though India requires 80 million job opportunities, the latest budget envisages only 2 million opportunities through all its proposals. The Indian economy is stagnant at present in creating new job opportunities, he said.
Various allegations that there was special consideration for Bihar and Andhra are baseless and politically motivated, according to G . Vijaya Raghavan, a former member of the Planning Board. He said that the internship programme proposed in the budget is innovative, but he also expressed concern over such proposals. Kerala should take advantage of the various budget proposals instead of making political criticism, he said. He also said that to promote entrepreneurship in the agriculture segment, the land reforms act of the state should be modified.
According to Dr C Veeramani, Center for Development Studies, India's export sector is still lagging, contributing less than 2 per cent of global trade. "Unfortunately, there were no proposals in the budget to boost exports. The government should reduce the import duty on intermediary products to promote exports," he said.
Professor K.J Joseph, Director, GIFT, delivered the introductory remarks in the seminar and Assistant Professor Dr. Kirankumar Kakkarlapudi proposed a vote of thanks